Drawing Courses

Performance art is and has been an open genre, a place to experiment with ideas, materials and time. For this course, the working definition of “performance art” is — a piece which uses a live body, exists in time, and is non-linear. This class is an introduction to performance art designed for students who are shy and apprehensive about performing and students who are extroverted and at ease in front of groups. Workshops include: developing a language of movement, gesture, and stance; developing a range of low-tech sound, lighting and video; juxtaposing activity, image, sound and text; structuring or building a piece; and documentation. We will consider singular actions, interventions and other strategies for generating and developing ideas for performance work. Student work for this class has been diverse and has included costume-based work, work using endurance as a central tactic, collaborative work, public intervention, interactive and site-specific work. Skills in editing video and sound, installation, animation are useful, but not required.

Contemporary artists have a multitude of ways they can engage with the larger world, beyond the realm of the gallery or museum. Students enrolled in this course will explore various models of artistic production including, but not limited to, performer, activist, curator and provocateur. The relationship between method of creation and idea, or the handmade versus the industrial, will be investigated. Additionally, assignments will challenge students to analyze the content of their artwork within local, national, and global contexts. Coursework will include studio work, readings, discussion, and critiques. Required for VAT seniors in all majors. Open as an elective with approval of instructor. Offered fall.

This course will investigate the means by which various systems of drawing and representation function as methods of communication. How do historical, cultural and social contexts frame an artist's ability to send messages through their work? And, like in a game of telephone, in any system of communication it is inevitable that potential problems may occur- misunderstandings, errors, and falsehoods. Can these absorbed into the content of the work? Illusionistic, abstract, allegorical, diagrammatic, mathematical and idiosyncratic systems of drawing and representation will be investigated through this course, through studio practice, readings, critique and in-class discussion. Required of all Junior Drawing Majors.

This course explores a realm of artistic endeavor apart from the Western canon and the gallery art system. As such, students will work within the greater social context, applying their skills to pressing issues such as urban decay and poverty, ecology (brown fields, waste, pollution) violence, and other issues stemming from contradictions between the wants and needs of the individual and the wants and needs of the greater society. Histories of artists working in these arenas will provide a starting point and a model for student work. Each student will research issues that are of personal concern, present their findings to the class. This will be followed by discussions around problem solving and efficacy of action. Projects will then be developed and implemented.

Though the image of the artist is that of the solitary individual striving to express their vision Ð the contemporary practice of art is peppered with numerous examples of artists collaborating. This course will focus on how the presentations of images, and objects have been effected by changing social and cultural perspectives and the technologies of reproduction. These extend form something as simple as organizing a group exhibition, to the type of social interventions practiced by the Guerrilla Girls or the work of such entities as Gilbert and George, or the collective N55. This course through projects, readings, and critiques will explore the dynamic of working collaboratively. Each exercise will address different processes, skill-sets and interpersonal relationships. Through classroom discussion, lectures, and studio assignments the social, historical, cultural, technological context that gave rise to the current practices of collage, assemblage and installation will be elaborated. This course is open to majors from all disciplines and students will be encouraged to apply their area of expertise to assignments and classroom readings and discussion. This course is open to students from all disciplines and is not media specific.